Adam Jason Cohen (b. New Jersey, 1986) is a photographer currently living and working in Chicago, Illinois documenting the social landscape and human condition with a focus specifically on the South and West Sides of Chicago. His work has been showcased in print and online in local and international publications. He also produces his own small-run limited edition books documenting his work in Chicago and is currently working on a number of larger scale bodies of work soon to be published.

Whether its an art, poetry or photobook that asks the viewer to question their assumptions of the world, or an enamel pin that makes them feel more at peace with their vulnerability, Blue Pear represents the magical and meaningful things we create and dream into existence that encourage wonder within our lives. Blue Pear fiercely values equality among people, reverence for ritual, process, shameless existence, experimentation and human uniqueness.

Ali Cantarella is a full time freelance artist, wielding her pen for indie comics, corporate clients, and private commissions alike. When not sketching, she enjoys creating food as colorful as it is tasty, biking around her beautiful city, and leaving half-drank cups of tea on various surfaces around her apartment.

Pubes and Tudes is a loose collective of femmes unified by their disgusting attitudes and disgust for the sterile, hegemonic status quo. some of us have shared the pleasure of exhibiting and hanging out together at recent small press events.

Allison Catuira is a designer, art director and illustrator, born and raised in Chicago with a stint in NYC. She forgot she was an illustrator for a while, so now she's making illustrated zines that capture her love of food and pop culture from all around the world.

Andrea is an illustrator and comic artist living in Chicago through the best and worse seasons. Her work reflects honesty, adventure, and strong relatable characters combined with an interesting palette.

Andrew Larkin hails from Evanston and works with other amazing artists as part of the Let's Make Comics collective. Andrew loves to create collections of short, punny strips. He is also working on a new ongoing book entitled Goddess of the Wood.

Andrew is a California transplant who has found a home in Chicago where he can pursue his dream of storytelling. His zines delve into the fantastical world of Aclion where magic is rare and wonderful and heroic deeds are remembering for all time.

Anna Jo Beck is an illustrator, designer, and zinester residing in Chicago, IL. She is a layout queen: she works by day as the editorial art director for a few trade magazines, and by night helps organize Chicago Zine Fest. Her own zines are detailed and informative, with ranging topics from personal finance, to city hall weddings, to Spanish grammar. She's devastated she'll have to miss CZF 2017, but you'll be able to find her work at the CZF table, as well as online at annajobeck.com.

Anna Lisa lives and works in Holland, Michigan which is an okay place if you can tolerate tulips. She creates a weekly surreal webcomic, Inward Bound, that focuses on friendship, inner demons and adventure.

The Wheelhouse serves as a Toronto-based supporting resource for those facing barriers of accessibility, and takes an intersectional approach to social justice. The art created by its members challenges not only gender-based oppression, but also the racist and classist structures that limit us as individuals and as a community.

The Bandit Zine is a comp zine from Grand Rapids, Michigan, focused on social-justice issues. We aim for an intersectional look at important topics in a non-academic way. We pull from a wide net of writers and artists from all different backgrounds, across the globe, to make our zine as inclusive as possible.

Bred Press is an artist books, comics, and zine publishing house located in Chicago. Started by Brad Rohloff in 2014, it provides a platform by which to support contemporary artists working within the medium of printed and published matter. I love you.

Brown Recluse Zine Distro, based in the Pacific Northwest, is a zine distro for people of color, by people of color. Created to support and center zines written by POC; BRZD was born out of passion for zines and frustration at the lack of representation and meaningful zine material for POC

Cathy Hannah lives and draws in Chicago. She draws maudlin comics about life’s many disappointments, some of which are political or historical. Originally from Michigan, she graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a fancy degree in comics makin’ in 2003. Determined to drive up her debt and accumulate even more impractical credentials she graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an even fancier graduate degree in Art History, Theory, and Criticism in 2007. This means she is exceptionally qualified to draw a comic about how comics are great!

Celina Barajas is an animator/illustrator who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and has been living in Chicago for over a decade. She began exhibiting her art at comic conventions in early 2014 and premiered her very first self-made comic, "Color Me Whimsy" last year at CZF 2016. This year she will be a part of an anthology with the "Let's Make Comics" group and will have a sequel to "Color Me Whimsy".

Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) is a weekend-long celebration of independent comics, inspired by Chicago’s rich legacy as home to many of underground and alternative comics’ most talented artists– past, present and future. Featuring comics for sale, workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions and more, CAKE is dedicated to fostering community and dialogue among independent artists, small presses, publishers and readers. CAKE is an invited organization of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Chicago Books to Women in Prison is an all-volunteer group that distributes paperback books free of charge to incarcerated women, including transwomen, nationwide. We are dedicated to offering the opportunity for self-empowerment, education, and entertainment that reading provides.

Chicago Publishers Resource Center (CHIPRC) is a non-profit that strives to build community and foster creativity by providing access to the space, education, and resources necessary to create and self-publish literary and visual work. CHIPRC is a sponsor of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Artist Action and Claudia, born and raised in Chicago have found the city as its canvas. Action wheatpastes his love of pugs and more on Chicago walls while Claudia illustrates designs and story invoking the artist life.

English Illustrator exploring the Midwest and drawing my new experiences. Venturing into children's zines with my partner and our new family obsession with trains. Heather provides Quirky DIY instructional zines.

I am Cristi López, an emerging artist from Gainesville, Florida. I am a recent graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, where I received a BFA in Illustration in 2016. My passion for illustration stems from my desire to make work that is universally accessible. My visuals are personal and allegorical, inviting viewer interpretation.

Dan Nelson is a hot dog fanatic who has been watching wrestling since he was a small boy. Hot Tag, rather than about hot dogs, is about his complex relationship with sports entertainment, from his obsession as a youth to his own wrestling experience.

David alvarado is a cartoonist and illustrator. He has created illustrations for various publications including cicada, Newcity, Narrativly and Lumpen. He is an avid self publisher of mini comics, zines and other paper ephemera.

Debbie grew up on the tropical island of Taiwan and immigrated to the United States at the tender age of 10. She loves to draw and screenprint. She is working on collaborating on zines with other poets and provide beautiful words with illustrations to match.

DePaul University Special Collections and Archives maintains a variety of zine collections primarily dating from the 1990s through the 2010s, with a strong emphasis on materials produced in Chicago and the Midwest region. DePaul's collections represent diverse topics and formats, including political action, arts, music, and personal histories, with a focus on providing accessibility to inmate populations. DePaul seeks to preserve and provide access to zines as an alternative print format often representing lesser heard voices. DePaul University Library is an invited organization of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Zinesboro is a roving zine library and smalltime publisher based out of Carrboro, NC. Our goal is to promote and share DIY arts through pop-up events around the Triangle and publish original artzines and chapbooks.

Holy Demon Army Distro is the only zine distro devoted entirely to the sport of kings, professional wrestling. Black Metal of the Americas is a zine devoted to covering non-bigoted black metal from North and South America.

Ed Witt is a comic artist and writer living in Chicago. He is also the founder of Northside Comic Artists, a Chicago-based collective of comic artists from hobbyists to professionals who hold drawing events and workshops on the north side of Chicago. At Zinefest he will be selling three different anthologies created by the members of the collective and promoting the group.

Eli Halpern is merely the mortal vessel for the ravenous and profane appetites of A Pony Named Princess. He is a Chicago-based artist and game designer whose non-equine projects include the party game Cards Against Humanity.

Elliott Junkyard is an artist of many media. He is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently resides in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He started making zines in 2010 and has not looked back since.

Stories real and imagined by a queer southern punk from durham, north carolina

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Eric Bartholomew

Junk Drawer

Eric Bartholomew grew up going to garage sales, finding stuff in alleys, and collecting odds and ends of various sorts. He tries not to save too much, and writes about it instead, in his zine series called “Junk Drawer.”

Entwined, Nothing Compares 2 U, Dancing In THe Dark, Thalassic Sanctuary, What is Up With Your Fruity Name?, Jade

Fiona Avocado is an artist, writer, media maker, educator, and agitator. Fiona’s work is multifaceted and explores many subjects, including everyday life, current events, alternate universes, and glittery daydreams. She resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Free Association Magazine (Free Ass. Mag.) is an anti-architecture/architecture [maga]zine, responding in agitation to the isolated nature of architecture by viewing the built environment through the lenses of varying media and ideas. Free Ass. Mag. will discuss topics of the inhabitable realm triggered by a single theme for each published issue.

Gabe Howell is a transgender cartoonist and painter currently in living Chicago, Illinois and studying at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He enjoys digging through garbage and drawing sad comics about peeing in alleys.

Grant Lewandowski is a Chicago based photographer that produces publications that capture the people around him. His documentary style photography looks into the lives of all kinds of people from every walk of life.

St. Sucia is a submission based, all Latina feminist zine. Started in San Antonio with a an unattended copy machine, we are now international and on University syllibi, our goal is to elevate our community's art and lit!

Isabella Rotman is a cartoonist and snake-person from Maine living and drawing in Chicago. Her art is usually about the ocean, mermaids, crushing loneliness, people in the woods, or sex. She is Artist in Residence at Scarleteen.com.

Jahnny Vommit is a visual artist born and raised in New York City. Her work is heavily inspired by the fashion and rock and roll history of the 1980s. She is also the curator of the all female alternative art zine HellBitches.

JC Sparks is a poetry/scifi/microfiction/experimental/nonfiction writer from Kansas City, MO. Psychotronic Alterna-Press is a nexus of mind-altering writing and zines including titles such as No True Sleep and Colossal Poetry Zine.

Jessica Earhart is a visual artist based in Pittsburgh, PA. Her mediums of focus are collage and zines. She loves working with collage because she only has partial control of the outcome, much like life. Her art inspired by feminism, environmentalism, and existential crisis. She adores cats and often eats ice cream for dinner.

Jason Wilkins (JTW) has been creating mini comics since his pre-teens but started doing comics seriously in 2004, when he self-published his first comic zine Lunchbox. Since then, he was part of the Local DC Conspiracy comic scene in which his work can be seen in the Magic Bullet Comic Newspaper. He has labeled his technique in coloring and effects as "Hi-Octane".

Katherine Gottsegen is queer a visual artist and illustrator currently living in Durham NC. She is interested in exploring the relationships between lines, digital experimentation, and radical politics through her illustrations.

Katie Armentrout is a lifelong cartoonist and beauty champion who lives and works in the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. "Celebrate the People" is Katie's autobiographical comic series she hopes you will find a wee bit funny. It is her heartfelt attempt to thrill and celebrate, you, the people.

Katrina Kubeczko is an artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a lover of zines and an organizer of Twin Cities Zine Fest (MN).
In addition to zines by Katrina, collaborative projects will also be featured (and a few zines by friends who couldn't make the trip themselves)

Kayla Lane writes words and makes things in Chicago by way of Austin. She often performs the things she writes and makes at variety, comedy and art shows. A show she co-wrote and performed in "Ankle Boots: Absurd Miniature Memoirs" won Best of Fest at the 2014 Chicago Fringe Fest, and was featured at the 2015 Festival. She took 2016 off. Rest is important.

Keiler Roberts teaches comics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and lives in Evanston, Illinois with her husband, daughter and dog. The Comics Journal said of her recently published third book, Miseryland, that she “captures human nature in all its quirky contradiction.” Her Ignatz-winning autobiographical comic Powdered Milk can be seen at keilerroberts.com. Her work was included in The Best American Comics 2016.

Kelly Leigh Miller is a Chicago illustrator, comic artist, painter and all around sketchbook enthusiast! Alexander Sloves is a Chicago based designer and art director, and lover of all things comics and zines.

Kevin Budnik is a cartoonist from chicago. He makes journal comics about mental health. Meredith is a cartoonist and illustrator currently living in Hamilton, Ontario. She likes working on her bike and making comics about everything.

Kristopher Pollard (Kpolly) is an artist/illustrator from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His book Fake A$$ Rappers is collection of fictional hip hop icons and their work. His new zine Kpolly's Guide to Your Whole Stupid Life is a collections of short form comics from the past two years.

Ladies' Night provides a safe space for women to discuss and create comics. Since 2012, we have annually published Ladies' Night Anthology, featuring comics by women identifying individuals from around the world.

Leila Abdelrazaq is a Palestinian artist from Chicago. She is the author of the graphic novel Baddawi, as well as a variety of short comics and zines. Her distro project, Bigmouth Comix, lifts up the work of female and non-binary artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.

Lumpen Radio (WLPN 105.5) is a non commercial radical radio station from Chicago (on 105.5 FM) that showcases innovative ideas, plays highly curated music, and broadcasts commentary on the issues of our day. WLPN spotlights the hidden parts of the city we love, amplifying its voices and sounds. We are a station for the people that live and work in the city, people everywhere that love Chicago's underground cultures, and people who love the idea of freeform radio wherever they are. Lumpen is a sponsor of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Plus Dog Collective is composed of cartoonists, writers, and illustrators based in the Minneapolis area. Formed in 2014, we are dedicated to creating and showcasing self-published work from a diverse range of artists with varying styles and stories.

Anything That Can Go Wrong is an ongoing zine/diary-comic published by Chicago based painter/illustrator Mia Cruz. A mix of poetry, memoir, illustration, and a slight obsession with food, Anything That Can Go Wrong returns this year with Zine 2(3)4, the third of the series, chronicling the moment our writer hits mental puberty and owns up to her age, also known as "Adulting."

The Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) was first launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground queer communities.

Nessie Grace is a bat researcher that compiles her and others' stories, essays, recipes, and more into The Nature Zine. People share their fears, passions, and thoughts on exploring, connecting with and studying nature - and disconnecting with the urban world. Tips are also included on identifying flora and fauna. Some issues also include cassettes so readers can experience sounds altered and looped forest recordings.

Nia King is a queer mixed-race artist and activist from Boston, MA living in Oakland, CA. She is the author of Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volumes 1 & 2, and the host/producer of We Want the Airwaves podcast.

Nichole writes perzines of the mental health and slice-of-life variety, and have run the gamut of topics: friendship, acne scars, lucid dreaming, depression, medication, and so much more. Go check out her zines! She's also up for trades.

The Sick Muse is a zine about, by & for DIY CHI music: its words, theories, and poetry; its politics, art, and eros; its midnight lamp; its muse. Our mission and content is not music, its musicking. Beyond the music you hear at shows, there are the communities, words, theories, spaces, and passions that form it. That's what we want to get at.

Other Forms is a mobile research and design collective working in multiple intersections of architecture, graphic design, and publishing. Other Forms considers how design reflects and critiques, in semi-autonomous marginal spaces, the material and social conditions of its practice. Other Forms produces exhibitions, publications, writing, and typography, and anticipates the possibility of architecture. Other Forms is Jack Henrie Fisher, Jonathan Krohn, and Alan Smart. We/they are based in Chicago and Berlin.

Pulp, Ink, Thread (PIT) is an organization of grad students in the Book & Paper and Interdisciplinary Arts & Media MFA programs at Columbia College Chicago. We collectively and individual make zines, prints, and books that investigate a wide range of topics.

Quimby's Bookstore is an independently owned bookstore that sells independently-published and small press books, comics, zines and ephemera. Quimby's favors the unusual, the aberrant, the saucy and the lowbrow. Quimby's is a sponsor of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Rachel Bard is a cartoonist and illustrator who loves monsters, sad stories, and small press publishing. She graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016, where she drew a lot of cute things trying to not get eaten. Now she spends her time making comics, inventing strange new animals, and assembling an endless amount of tiny books.

A collection of Chicago animators with big dreams and small zines. Collect us all!

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Read/Write Library

Read/Write Library

Read/Write Library collects, preserves, and provides access to community media in order to inspire and promote diverse modes of cultural production and civic engagement. Through our public programs and free browsing hours, growing collection of over 5,000 publications, and open source catalog, the library strives to raise the visibility of work produced by Chicagoans of all backgrounds and to encourage inquiry into and ownership of the historical record. Started in 2006 as Chicago Underground Library, Read/Write Library is based in Humboldt Park and collaborates with other organizations to produce Pop Up Libraries throughout the Chicago area. Read/Write is an invited organization of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Rivven Swanson is a Queer comics and fiber artist based in Chicago. Their work switches from educational to punny and back again. Some of their favorite topics are Queer/trans love, weather patterns and landscapes, and monster movies.

Rosamund Lannin runs lady live lit show Miss Spoken, occasionally makes zines, and is pleasantly surprised to have lived in Chicago for over a decade. Megan Kirby lives and writes in Chicago, and had paid her rent freelancing for alumni magazines, walking rich people’s dogs, working a comic shop counter, and selling the occasional short story.

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Ryan Burns

Bloody Mary Fairy, Terms of Endearment

Ryan Burns, (born September 30, 1983, Manchester, Connecticut) American painter, short-story zinester, and drawer whose dense works provide a dark, often satirical analysis of American culture.

Founded in 2010 by graphic designers Kelly Cree and Jessica Mullen, School of Life Design (SoLD) aims to provide a formal education in spirituality. Employing the principles of design—harmony, balance, hierarchy, scale, focus, and contrast—SoLD pragmatically fills the spiritual void left by public education. Offering conscious creation resources from positive thinking worksheets to guided meditations to Monthly Manifestation Manuals, SoLD has everything you need to deliberately create and enjoy your reality on a daily basis. School of Life Design is an invited organization of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Scott Roberts makes experimental comics. His animations, sculptures, and video installations have been shown in galleries and museums. He lives in Evanston with his wife, daughter, and dog and is the chair of the Animation program at DePaul University in Chicago.

I graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Sequential Art. My independent comics focus on curiosity and adventure through traveling or misfit characters. Whether in a comic, illustration, or cartoon, my stories embrace a balance of innocent and cynical protagonists. I hopes to create diverse, relatable characters that the audience can witness their inner growth, discovery, and individuality.

Sheika wanted to be an elephant when she grew up but settled for making comics instead. Her work with The Ladydrawers focuses on economic, race, gender and cultural issues impacting marginalized individuals.

SlutWalk is an international movement that was born in 2011 as a response to an all-too common expression of institutional rape culture: a police officer’s public statement to a group of college students: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” SlutWalks all over the world have been organized since. That police officer vocalized what survivors of rape, sexual assault, and street harassment know all too well: in our society, survivors of sexual abuse and rape are often blamed and shamed for the abuse inflicted upon them, while perpetrators are rarely held accountable. Slutwalk is an invited organization of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Spudnik Press Cooperative is a community-based art center located in a warehouse-turned-arts hub in West Town, Chicago. Founded on the premise that art should be a democratic and empowering medium, Spudnik Press Cooperative is committed to being an approachable and affordable print shop; a space where professional printmakers merge with aspiring students; a space that encourages collaboration and the sharing of ideas. At Zine Fest, the Spudnik Press "Saturday Morning Zine Club" will debut new work, with many of the artists involved tabling for the first time! Spudnik Press is an invited organization of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Martian Press is a Milwaukee-based Risograph press dedicated to creating and publishing original content as well as producing zines and prints created by other local and national artists and writers. Martian Press collects the outlandish, the otherworldly, the extraordinary and the ordinary and produces something meaningful from them.

Sun Bros Studios has been making and publishing comics since it's founding in 2012 by brother Wesley and Brad Sun. Their newest book, EISEGESIS, is their first ever collaboration with Chicago artist Ali Cantarella.

Temporary Services and Half Letter Press will bring booklets that we've been making since 1998, as well as materials from our friends and other projects like Public Collectors and Breakdown Break Down Press.

Tim and Annie make zines both together and separately under the name STUDIUM/punctum Press. They write about film, food, radical politics, books, art, the internet, and more, and usually combine heavily researched nerdiness with personal reflection, humor, and visual art. They also distro zines from friends and comrades from around the country.

Our collections focus on zines created in Chicago, by or about people who have a relationship with the city. We’ve been collecting since 2010 and are excited about adding more! The University of Chicago Library is a sponsor of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.

Vesteban Comics is a local Chicago comic artist and is quite excited to be at the Chicago Zine Fest! His book Second Wind takes place in the city of Chicago, and the books of Wexler's Follies (a 1920's theater themed drama) will be available as well. We can't wait to see you at the show!

The idea of work and work ethic is what drives us. Our investments are time and energy, and our product is not just a singular object, but a practical example of the doctrine that hard work gives way to good ideas and that those good ideas, in turn, manifest into hard work.

Yewon Kwon is originally from Virginia but has been working in the Chicago area for the past 4 years. Yewon is currently pursuing a BFA at SAIC for printmedia and sculpture, runs a collective publication called Pallor Pink, and runs an instagram of dog paraphernalia. Rohan Patrick McDonald is an artist, illustrator, and designer working in Chicago, IL. He also make comics and experiments with hand drawn and stop motion animation.

YOUmedia is a library and studio space at Chicago Public Library designed specifically for teens. Teens can hang out, mess around and geek out on projects to create their own music, video, 2D and 3D design, photos and podcasts with help from skilled mentors. YOUmedia is an invited organization of Chicago Zine Fest 2017.